http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/international/asia/25tsunami.html?
Behind Its Seawalls, Japanese Isle Debates Their Value
OKUSHIRI ISLAND, Japan - The seawalls run along nine miles of this small island's 52-mile perimeter, including almost all the inhabited stretches of its eastern coast.
They rise as high as 38 feet, dwarfing the bungalows that lie in their shadows, restricting access to the pebbly shore and blocking the view of the sea's clear waters here in northern Japan. The walls' flat concrete tops are wide enough to stroll on.
Seen from a 19-seat airplane in its descent toward Okushiri, the walls seem to have been intended to turn the island into a fortress. But they are not to protect against invaders from the mainland, some 13 miles east of here, but against tsunamis, like the one that struck the island in 1993, claiming 4 percent of its population and a third of its houses.
In the country that gave the world the word tsunami and is said to have developed the most advanced technology against them and earthquakes, this island of 3,700 people is, at least in theory, one of the places best prepared to handle them. Japan spent $1.3 billion to rebuild this small island of three post offices and one high school.
By my calculations, that's $351,351 per capita in construction expenses.
